WWII, Japan, and Modern America: More Bush Bullshit

The New York Times reported yesterday about a large public protest in Okinawa over proposed changes that would erase from Japanese history textbooks any references to the role Japanese authorities had in causing the mass suicides. The current textbooks acknowledge what happened. The new textbooks would mention the suicides without saying how or why they came about. This is a piece of the ongoing resurgent nationalism in Japan.

What is the connection between this story and torture by the U.S.? This: the willingness to lie—to write history in a way that washes away sins and erases victims.

Once again, the Bush Administration is insisting publicly, loudly, indignantly, that the U.S. does not engage in “torture.” Were it only true.